Sean

So whats happened today? They've written a love letter to Ashley, anything else?

How dare Godzilla use actual facts to counter numbers someone pulled out of their arse. Because it's Ashley, it must all be true! Remember when NUFC fans were painted as morons because some people actually thought transfer funds were being used to buy House of Fraser and were ringing the phone ins about it? When the Mag (I think) posted an online article about how Ashley was leasing the Gallowgate plot back to the club for £60m? That's why I respond to bollocks spouted about Ashley. It all deflects from the clear evidence about him which should always be the focus of our ire. See 54's brilliant post for that. So I'm not having you come out and paint people as apologists because they are calling out bullshit posted on here. Those are a bit different from saying he is taking upto £10 million worth of free advertising a year from the club. But you and Godzilla are determined to even play things like that down.

Yep. It's quite staggering to see actual fans of the club try to play down Ashley's acts.

Absolutely not Ditto. Admit to getting sucked in by it and actually thinking that there was some validity to it all a while back, but this is a non starter and probably always was looking at it. (imo) He has zero intention of selling his cash machine any time soon imo. The giveaway should have been the news breaking as "Ashley agrees to sell Newcastle United" and the small print being "he hasn't actually sold them but we think he will" For me, that was the moment I thought 'here we go again'..

Not surprising at all sadly.

You mean the one a national journo claimed vehemently was a done deal? Yes, I think that holds more water than random joining of dots without anything to back it up. FWIW, if Khaled is seen as 'the same' as the Abu Dhabi state, then no deal could take place because they already have a club in the league. Has any official body stated whether cousins etc can own 2 different clubs in the PL? I'm honestly unsure, mainly because we are being fed so much shit from the media, from sources within Ashley's camp, but also incredibly by BZG. They're statements have just added to the confusion around what is actually going on. All we have is joining dots...theres been a distinct lack of factual info around the whole thing. By the way, did the journo say they had actually signed an SPA? I don't think he did. Also, journalists (especially from the S*n), regularly write absolute bollocks. It was pretty clear they had never got that far. Ashley likes putting big headlines like "Ashley agrees to sell NUFC!!" in papers for some strange reason. Anyway, I'd be fucking amazed if this BZG group actually buy us, as I've said from the start of this long saga.

It's majority owned by Khaled's relatives through the Abu Dhabi Investment Council. So not him then. Plus, there's no clarification of what the 'link' is between this bank and the Malaysians. This fund is huge- it will be invested in all sorts of projects where financing is provided by banks all over the world. Nobody is saying this is fact, just that it's not beyond the realms of possibility. Info-wars shit is 'assuming' from their vague statement released nearly a month ago that they had signed a legally-binding sales and purchase agreement. Hows that theory going.

It's majority owned by Khaled's relatives through the Abu Dhabi Investment Council.

Exactly, can they not just report the truth: "Now Rafa has been successfully fucked off, a whole host of useless players that nobody else wants will be welcomed back into the fold by Ashley as it saves money having to buy actual players." Of course if they wrote that they'd be banned again. Grow some fucking balls and report the truth man.

First sentence is true, they did buy SD's HQ. Sheik Khaled (is it the right one?) does seem to be in control of that bank (which might have merged with others). That bank and the Malaysian Provident Fund have done deals in the past. That's all available info from a 2 minute search. Whether it's true that it's a favour to Mike Ashley, f*** knows. I wouldn't put it past the c*** though. I mean, it's not as if the false/misleading statements BZG have put out inspire confidence in them. Or that Midhat loon on whatsapp. The whole things just f***ing strange, as usual with Ashley. And it always ends in no sale. I've done a quick search and can't find anything linking Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to that bank like. I doubt it's the right one, unless I'm missing something obvious You're probably right, I'm not long up after a few last night. It's a crazy theory, but the way this saga has gone I wouldn't rule anything out. :lol: Who the fuck knows at this point? Nothing would surprise me now. Sheikh Khaled and Midhat Kidwai could turn out to be Kevin Nolan and Lee Charnley in disguise and it wouldn't shock me.

First sentence is true, they did buy SD's HQ. Sheik Khaled (is it the right one?) does seem to be in control of that bank (which might have merged with others). That bank and the Malaysian Provident Fund have done deals in the past. That's all available info from a 2 minute search. Whether it's true that it's a favour to Mike Ashley, f*** knows. I wouldn't put it past the c*** though. I mean, it's not as if the false/misleading statements BZG have put out inspire confidence in them. Or that Midhat loon on whatsapp. The whole things just f***ing strange, as usual with Ashley. And it always ends in no sale. I've done a quick search and can't find anything linking Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to that bank like. I doubt it's the right one, unless I'm missing something obvious You're probably right, I'm not long up after a few last night. It's a crazy theory, but the way this saga has gone I wouldn't rule anything out.

First sentence is true, they did buy SD's HQ. Sheik Khaled (is it the right one?) does seem to be in control of that bank (which might have merged with others). That bank and the Malaysian Provident Fund have done deals in the past. That's all available info from a 2 minute search. Whether it's true that it's a favour to Mike Ashley, fuck knows. I wouldn't put it past the cunt though. I mean, it's not as if the false/misleading statements BZG have put out inspire confidence in them. Or that Midhat loon on whatsapp. The whole things just fucking strange, as usual with Ashley. And it always ends in no sale.

He’s never loaned his own money to the club once Man, he’s taking a lot out though. He’s robbing the club right left and centre and has from day one. Thats his point and why "lend" and "loans" are in quotes. There are plenty of our fans who believe what Ashley says though granted.

Such an accurate description.

Wow only just seen this. Yep it would indicate no takeover surely. And it continues our summer of fuckery. I (to the point of being blindly optimistic) think the opposite. Part of me hopes this is Ashley's final "fuck you" to the fans by deliberately hamstringing the club as much as possible. Surely even someone as stupid in the ways of football as him can see that this extremely demotivated team is even more demotivated losing one of their best players, including not signing the striker that kept them up and letting go the manager that made it all possible, is just screaming for us to go down without a fight. Surely he realises that if we go down he loses £150-200m in a sale and his SD advertising is worth precious little in the lower leagues. He loves torturing us, all those fans that didn't renew their season tickets and lose their loyalty points he can laugh at. He deliberately drags it out as much as can be allowed to give us as little time as possible to recover so if things go bad he can say "I told you so" and make out how he wasn't the "pantomime villain he's portrayed as". Either way, not too fussed at the moment. He can crack on as far as I'm concerned. It's just another fuck you to the fans, with plenty more to come if you ask me unfortunately. Agree that the club can continue to implode while he's still owner.

Wow only just seen this. Yep it would indicate no takeover surely. And it continues our summer of fuckery.

It's always seemed the most likely outcome with Ashley's history. I can't see Rafa not being contacted by any group actually purchasing the club, even if they were mental enough to not want him. And they would have to be absolutely off their heads to not want Rafa, lets be honest here. It seems Ashley really is doing his best to repeat history from 10 years ago.

Mike Ashley has no will to sell whatsoever, if he did the club would have been sold years ago. Any deal that's proposed will have to be at least as equally-favourable to him financially as simply owning the club would be, if not we'll be stuck with him. I suspect he holds a tremendous grudge against us and would love a few "fuck you" clauses too if he could get them in there. Very unlikely that a deal will be struck IMO. This is it basically. Very unlikely a deal will be struck, but if no season tickets were sold at all that could give him something of a nudge towards doing a deal. Not gonna happen though as he sits back and judges that theres going to be very little backlash again. Wonder what his next "fuck you" will be, he's played a fucking blinder so far this summer.

Some strategy decisions will be made by the Board, some will be put to members- and if you don't like what is being done you can vote members off the board at the AGM. You can't run a trust organisation with everything being done by vote of 5,000+ people, nothing would ever get done. That's why we have a board giving up a hell of a lot of their spare time to build a functioning trust. There is no crossover with the Board of the NUST and The Magpie Group, I resigned from TMG for a number of reasons and that was before I joined the board of NUST. NUST have a place on the pointless fans forum which have been very critical of but as NUST - nobody on the board has a role there in any other capacity. We have a good range of people on the board and so far it's working very well and really no ego issues (yes, even with Steve Wraith). Steve's contacts have been invaluable really in building the trust back up. Plenty of info on the website but I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have. Thanks for all the information, it's much appreciated. I'll have a little think over the next couple of days, I may well get back to you with a few more questions but fairly happy with what you have stated.

I'm in the position where I don't think I feel able to trust the leadership of any fans' groups at the present time unfortunately. I might get slated for this, but it's my view at the moment. Egos have always seemed to come into play with our fanbase previously, and may again in future, but the main sticking point for me is the leadership of fans groups calling off previous protests after being asked to by people close to previous 'takeover' attempts. It was either extremely naive, or a convenient excuse, but that decision always seemed ridiculous to me. Any decent new owner would not say 'stop protesting against your horrible owner, or else it will affect us buying the club'. Is there crossover between the leadership of this group and the Magpie Group, or the fans forum? Or does this group aim to put important strategy decisions to it's membership as a vote, and follow though on the results? Where can I find more information about this group? As I don't know enough to make an informed decision as yet I don't feel.

Takes one second for someone to take a screenshot of a page so doubt it. If it was true then it would be a takeover going ahead as they wouldn’t put one out at this stage saying it wasn’t happening especially as there are SUPPOSEDLY a number of groups still competing. Why would it be takeover going ahead if the club do announce something? Because why would they put a statement out saying the takeover is off when the club continues to be on sale with still 6 weeks before the season starts and allegedly a number of groups involved. It would also go against all the Bishop theories about stalling and bullshit during the transfer window. You don't know this, you're just assuming things.

Takes one second for someone to take a screenshot of a page so doubt it. If it was true then it would be a takeover going ahead as they wouldn’t put one out at this stage saying it wasn’t happening especially as there are SUPPOSEDLY a number of groups still competing. Why would it be takeover going ahead if the club do announce something? All the noises coming out would suggest Ashley is getting ready for the "time wasters" statement...again.

Thanks for everything Rafa. Hopefully we'll meet again one day.

Only just seen that article...yeah I know which one I'm thinking too. It seemed from the start it was going to turn into a long, failed saga.

Yeah you remember correctly, I think another player might have mentioned something similar too. Clearly does it to every new player he meets, we're going to miss his attention to detail so badly this season.